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I don’t know about you guys, but after cooking up a storm all last weekend, I didn’t feel like touching anything in my kitchen all week. So I spent the week eating leftover pizza and fast food. Last night I decided I’d had enough and wanted something homemade. I wanted something quick and easy so I whipped up this stirfry.

Because it’s so quick and easy to make, this meal is perfect for this time of year when you’re rushing around frantically trying to get everything done for the holidays. And it’s full of vegetables so it counteracts all those calorie laden treats that are everywhere these days. At least that’s what I tell myself as I’m eating another Reeses Christmas tree! Let’s do this…

It’s important to get all your prep work done before you start cooking. Stir fry cooks up really fast so you need to have everything ready to go. So cut all your veggies into matchstick pieces. I used carrots, cucumber, bell peppers, and snow peas. And sweet onions. And garlic of course. If you like it, you can mince up some fresh ginger and add that in too. Just get it all ready to go.

I use flank steak for this because it’s super tender and it cooks up in a snap. Just slice it into thin strips against the grain.

In a small bowl, mix together some soy sauce and rice vinegar. If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can substitute red wine vinegar.

Add in some brown sugar and corn starch and mix it all together.

I served my stir fry on top of some cooked asian noodles, so I prepped them ahead of time too. Place the uncooked noodles in a mixing bowl.

Pour boiling water on top of the noodles.

Then just let them sit in the water while you’re cooking up the stir fry.

The important thing when making stir fry is to get your pan nice and hot. So heat up some oil in a skillet or wok. You have a couple choices here; if you have it, use peanut or sesame oil. But if all you’ve got is plain ol’ vegetable oil, that works too. Just make sure you get it nice and hot before you add in anything.

Once your oil is hot, place your meat in the skillet in a single layer. (You may have to work in batches if your skillet is not large enough.) Allow the meat to sear for a few minutes on one side before tossing to cook the other side.

You want to make sure each piece gets lots of good color on it. Once it’s all cooked, remove to a plate and set aside.

Add some more oil to the pan and allow it to get hot again. Then add in your vegetables. Because we don’t want the veggies to get mushy, you wanna toss in the ones that take the longest to cook first. I start with my carrots and garlic. Let them cook a minute then toss ‘em around to get some color on all sides.

Then do the same with the onions

and the cucumbers.

Add in the bell peppers.

And finally the snow peas.

Sometimes, I toss on some sesame seeds. And if you want a little heat, add in a pinch of crushed red peppers.

Toss it all together and let it cook just another minute or so.

You want to make sure all the pieces get some good color on them, that’s where the flavor is. But we want them to still be a little fresh tasting, so don’t over cook them.

Add back in the meat and toss it all together.

Then add in your soy sauce mixture and toss it to coat. It will quickly come to a boil, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer a few minutes to thicken up the sauce a bit.

Then remove to a platter.

Toss a few of your drained cooked noodles into the hot pan.

Let them cook a few minutes until they’re crispy. Place them on top of the stirfry to garnish.

To serve, just put some drained noodles in a bowl, and top with your stirfry.

This takes no more than 20 minutes to cook, 10 minutes of prep, and 10 minutes of cooking. Just start your water boiling for the noodles while you chop your veggies. By the time you’re done cutting those up, your water will be boiling and you can get your noodles going. By the time you’re done cooking everything up, the noodles are done and dinner is ready to go.

Easy, tasty, and relatively healthy…perfect for this time of year!

You can switch up the veggies too, just use whatever you have in your fridge or pantry…try mushrooms, water chestnuts, or baby corn. Even brocolli works.